Blades of Camaraderie
by DocHorrible64
Summary: In another life, Kirito would become the lone Black Swordsman, hated by many and liked by few. But this isn't that story. Or, what happens when I try to add a pair of OCs to SAO. Follows the anime episodes closely. First story, probably random updates, hope you like. Probably rated T, but might change in the future, not sure. General disclaimer I do not own Sword Art Online!
1. Chapter 1

Mattie laid on the bed, nerve-gear over her head, watching the digital clock displaying the time in the upper right-hand corner of the screen covering her eyes. The room was quiet, with only the hum of the computers and the breathing of Mattie and her brother, Josh. Her dog Ollie was cuddled into her side, asleep. She couldn't help the excited wiggle as she watched the clock slowly count up to 11:00 pm. Even though the time difference between Texas and Japan was huge and Mattie and her brother had to stay up extremely late the night before and drink copious amount cola and lemonade, it was the most exciting event she had ever waited for, including the release of the Harry Potter books (not the movies). She was glad that the first VRMMO had a built in translator, Mattie didn't want to have to wait for the US version to come out. She didn't play too many MMOs, but with the prospect of actually fighting monsters face-to-face appealed to her more than typing on a keyboard and watching a tiny avatar stab and slash on the screen. It was amazing that Josh had managed to get an extra nerve-gear for her. Even though he was one of the few beta-testers in the US, there were only about a few hundred copies available to Americans.

Finally the clock showed11:00 pm and as one 10,000 people around the world cried out "Link Start!" Mattie's vision went white and bars of color rushed past her. Five circles darted in front of her and to the side too fast for her to see. Once they stopped she could read that they were labelled with the five senses and all of them became green and sped out of her vision. Suddenly she came to a screen in front of her asking her to enter her account information, which she had created before diving. She enter it with the keyboard displayed and went through the language settings, selecting English. Since she did not have an avatar ready like her brother she had to go through the creation process. She didn't change much except thinning her cheeks a bit and getting rid of her freckles and changing her hair color to a deep purple ad her eyes a light shade of green. The resulting avatar was about 5'6" with a filled out form and a bit on the squishy side, not that Mattie minded, it made for softer hugs. She had mid-length hair in a ponytail with longish bangs framing her face. She wore a light purple beginner's outfit. Mattie frowned and went into the options and changed the outfit from a skirt to pants. Nodding to herself she entered her username **[Mayzer]** and clicked the accept button , then staggered back as the avatar rushed at her, merging with her then feeling a falling sensation. She opened her eyes to find herself in a plaza in **[Town of Beginnings]**. She grinned and looked around, amazed by the realistic surroundings and the other players teleporting into the game. She was so absorbed in the surroundings she didn't notice the body coming up behind her. Mattie, or Mayzer now, screeched as a hand came down on her shoulder and lashed out as she swiveled around.

"Goddammit Josh! Stop that! One day I'm going to give you a black eye for that!" Her brother, who she recognized by the username **[Arkus]**. "Chill out, it's not like you'll ever get close to hitting me."His avatar was also similar to him with just some more muscle definition. It stood at an aggravating height of 6'2" and was solidly built. His face was round like mine but had a straighter nose than mine and his mouth was a bit thinner than my plush one. His hair was the same length as mine and pulled back in a low tail, its color was a lighter shade of purple than mine. His eyes were a light shade of gray and were narrower than my almond shaped eyes. He was decked out in a beginner's outfit in a deep green and already had an axe strapped to his back.

I pouted up at him, "You went and got your weapon without me?"

"Don't worry," he said, patting me roughly on the head, "we'll get you sorted out. Follow me, I found a cheap stall over there."

He led me to one of the brightly colored stalls in the market area of the town. I looked over the selection and frowned. "Don't they have any bows or anything like that? I know the creator nixed the magic aspect but I didn't think he would take away all ranged weapons." "Yeah it kind of pissed off some of the beta-testers that there weren't really any ranged weapons except for throwing knifes and senbon, but Kayaba just stated on the website that it would be one of the unique skills he would introduced to the game." "Unique skills?" Mayzer asked. "Yeah, like duel-wielding and stuff like that, the player with the highest of one of the hidden stats would get a unique skill that isn't seen in the rest of the game." Arkus explained as he wandered over to a stall selling health crystals and other items. "Make sure to stock up on some before we head out." "Wait, wait, wait. Hidden stats? I have trouble managing the visible ones, and now you tell me there is a whole other set!?" "There stats that are affected by the visible ones but can't be manipulated by the player themselves. It's like the hidden relationship stats some games have. Kayaba never said what those stats were or what affected them so don't worry about them. Now, do you still want to go with the ranged throwing knifes? If so, I suggest also getting a regular dagger in case you get in a tight spot. Maybe some trap-laying equipment as well?" Mayzer sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I don't really want to get to close to the monsters, that's what you're here for. I think I'll actually get into alchemy instead of traps. I rather make my own crystals then mess around with finicky wires and stuff." "Then you should get a pouch so you can collect ingredients while were out there." She nodded purchased a beginner's dagger and ten of the small throwing knifes and a small ingredients pouch along with a couple of health crystals.

"Alright, let's head out to the field and see how good you are with those toothpicks."

"You want to get a close up view of them?"

Arkus just laughed and patted Mayzer's head again. "Maybe when you can hit the side of a barn. Otherwise, I fear for any poor bystander." Mayzer punched him in the arm and stomped after him to the fields where some level 1 boars were grazing. Mayzer noticed another pair working a bit away from them but ignored them. She wasn't interested in them and the long haired guy looked kind of shady.

"So the first thing to go over are sword skills. These are attacks that are automated by the system. To activate these you just need to shift into the starting stance and then the computer takes over from there. These attacks are guaranteed to hit your target." Arkus demonstrated by shifting into a stance, holding his axe to the side in both hands, crouching a bit. The blade started glowing and suddenly he swung, catching a boar in the side, the blade buried deep in its side. The boar let out a squeal and burst into glowing shards. A screen popped up in front of Arkus, showing the amount of Col and EXP he got for killing the boar. "There are other skills available like cooking and sneaking and there are practically thousands of these that you can work on. Back to the sword skills though, you specifically have an extra step in the process." "Oh, and what would that be?" Mayzer asked, looking down at the knife she had in her hand. This had gotten a lot more complex all of a sudden. Who made such an immersive environment just for a game? "You, my lucky little sister, actually have to aim to be able to hit something. Like I said, usually the system takes care of it and melee weapons always hit the target, but the throwing knifes actually have an aiming mechanism built-in to their program. It's supposed to be a beta for any future shooting games that might come out. I tried it out myself in the beta, it was really weird." "How so?" Mayzer asked, curious about the addition that seemed exclusive to her weapon. Of course it had to be her preferred weapon that got removed from the first game she was ever really interested in. "A circle appears in your vision as the place where the knife could land, and it grows and shrinks in response to how focused you are. The bigger the circle the more chance you have of missing." "Nothing to do with dexterity then?" "Well, yes it does. The higher you dexterity, or agility in this game, the smaller the circle is supposed to be able to get. So go ahead, try it out. If it's too difficult for you we can just work on your dagger kills for the rest of the time." Arkus said, a shit-eating grin on his face. Mayzer just gave him a glare and shifted her eyes to a boar grazing a little ways away from them.

She palmed the knife and raised her arm, bringing the knife level with her ear. She saw it start to glow out of the corner of her eye, but the thing that held her attention was the glowing circle in front of her, centered on the boar she was aiming at. As she focused in on the boar she noticed the circle contracting to the neck area, only to expand as her mind wandered to ponder the novelty of it. She shook her head and refocused, and as the circle contracted she let go of the stance and felt the system take over, her body moving on its own as her arm snapped out, the knife slipping out of her hand and sailing straight into the boar, a couple of inches from the neck and into its shoulder. Mayzer saw the bar floating above the monster lower a bit, but stayed green. It squealed and whipped around to spot her, lowering its head and pawing at the ground before charging at her. She yelped and cringed back, only to see the boar shatter at her brother buried his axe into the mob's head. "And that, dear sister, is why we are doing this together and why you aren't soloing for at least another ten levels."

Mayzer gulped, "Yeah, sounds good."

* * *

They had just finished killing the last boar around them when Arkus looked at the time. "We should log out soon, it's going to be almost 3:30 am. Even though we get to sleep in we don't want to throw our schedule off that much." "Yeah, okay. Just give me a minute." Mayzer panted out, her hands on her knees as she slumped over. It was exhausting running from those monsters! She didn't care what he said, there was no reason for Arkus to use her as bait and a distraction for boars. He's the one who's supposed to be the meat shield, not her!

She was still gasping for breath when she noticed Arkus freeze up at something on his menu. "What's got you in such a twist? Accidentally drop all your Col or something, cause I'm not looking over the entire field for it."

"Check your menu, Mattie." Arkus said, looking more serious than she had seen him in a long time.

"Why? Hey I thought were not supposed to-"

"Just do it! Let me see if I can get the GM on…" He broke off muttering, staring at the menu screen and waiting for the GM to pick up.

Mayzer swiped her right hand down and looked at the menu, clicking through the different tabs and looking for anything odd. "I don't see anything wrong with the menu that is freaking you out, are you sure you're not just…" she trailed off, staring at the blank button where the logout option should be. She stared dumbly at it, going through all the instructions Josh had given her before they even loaded the game up. _And remember if something goes wrong you can just log off. Your avatar should be relocated to the nearest town when you log back in. It's time-consuming but it sometimes it's the best thing to do. There is only one way to logout and it's the button in the menu, so don't go trying any weird poses if you forget._ Mayzer felt a cold chill settling in her spine. If they can't logout, how are they supposed to wake up? Is this a glitch? It has to be, this can't be on purpose. They'll just manually disconnect all the players from the game or, or have someone just come and yank the helmet off right? That would definitely force logout right?

Just as Mattie was starting to panic, she and Josh were surrounded by light and were transported to the main plaza of **[Town of Beginnings]**. They looked around and saw that almost all the other players in SAO were already there. No one seemed to know why they were there, people speculating that it could be an opening event or in response to the logout glitch. Mattie hoped they were right, but couldn't shake the dread she could feel in the pit of her stomach. Suddenly someone yelled out, gesturing up into the sky where there was a red blinking **[Warning!]** panel hovering there, soon followed by more red panels alternating between **[Warning!]** and **[System Announcement!]**. They covered the plaza in a red dome, casting a sinister light around the players. A red ooze started to seep through the dome and formed a giant hooded man, with no face visible and smoke billowing out underneath him and lightning crackling in the low hanging clouds.

Mattie zoned out during Kayaba's speech, barely picking out the facts of how they were stuck in this world, how if someone took off the nerve-gear they would die, how some people have already have died, the world coverage of this, and the only way to get out would be to beat the entire game. She only came to when he mentioned a present for every player. She went into her items menu and clicked on the mirror that had been placed there. She clicked on it and caught the small handheld mirror as it materialized. As she gazed into it observing her purple hair and green eyes, she was once again surrounded by white light. When it faded and she opened he eyes she dropped the mirror in shock. She watched the floating pieces of the broken mirror disappear, unable to make sense of the image. Why could she see her chocolate-brown hair and light-brown eyes? She looked over and saw her brother Josh, with short, spiky hair and deep brown eyes. "Josh?" She whispered, Josh looking just as stricken as she felt. "How?"

"The face scan, in the nerve-gear… but why?"

"He wants us to believe that this is as real as possible, to make us really live in this world." Mattie spat out, anger, no, fury, boiling in the pit of her gut, burning away all of her dread. "How long does he expect our bodies to survive in a comatose state? They can only keep our bodies alive for so long." "How long do you think we have? Before…" "I'm not sure, it could be years or decades, but there's so much that could go wrong. Infection, muscle atrophy, blood clots. It's not a good situation."

While they were whispering to each other Kayaba had finished his speech, "And so ends the tutorial of Sword Art Online." Once again smoke billowed out of its sleeves and then disappeared, the dome above them also vanishing, leaving the players frozen. Silence reigned over the plaza, players frozen, no one daring to move, to make this real.

Then, a single scream rang out.

Suddenly everyone was screaming. Screaming and crying, and begging, and some just sank to their knees, unaware of the people rampaging around them, injuring them but not lowering their health. It was impossible to injure another player in the towns, which were programmed to be safe-zones.

Mattie looked around, moving to cling to josh's sleeve to prevent from being separated. Josh suddenly grabbed her arm and started running out of the plaza and down the street, towards the road out into the fields. "Josh, Josh! Where are we going? You want us to leave the safe-zone now?!" "Yes, its best so we get first pick and before the fields get picked clean of XP and Col. But I thought I saw someone I know…" As we were running a man with bright red hair that stuck up in all directions and had a roguish look to his dashed past them, head held down and headed straight back to the plaza. Mattie looked over her shoulder following him with her eyes before Josh turned a sudden corner and she was brought face to face with a young boy, maybe around fourteen or fifteen, with short black hair and eyes and a bit taller than her, looking a bit lost and hurt. His eyes refocused on them and his face closed off and he turned to leave. "Kirito, it's me! It's Arkus! I thought it would be better if we stuck together instead of soloing it like I guessed you would." The boy, Kirito, gasped and took a deep breath and smiled, relieved. "Arkus. I didn't think… I thought that I was…" "Alone? Not by a long shot, Kirito. Remember, there's a thousand more of us beta-testers, and thousands more other players. You don't have to do this alone."

Kirito nodded, "Alright, so who is this? She isn't a beta-tester." "Kirito, let me introduce you to my sister Mayzer. Mayzer, my friend Kirito." "Yo, what's up?" Mayzer wave her hand awkwardly. She leaned towards her brother and whispered to him, "I would crack a joke about online predators but I'm guessing this is an inappropriate time." Josh, Arkus Mayzer corrected herself, punched her in the arm, sending her into the wall. She cracked up laughing, slightly hysterically, leaning against the wall that was still blinking **[Immortal Object]** , "Aha ha! What? You're twenty-seven and he's what? Fifteen? Sixteen?" "… Um? I'm fourteen, actually." Arkus put his head in his hands as Kirito looked on in confusion with a light blush on his cheeks, and Mayzer burst out in new peals of laughter, hand covering her eyes, but he could see tears tracking down her cheeks and his irritation and embarrassment cleared away as he went to his sister, taking her into his arms and holding her as she broke down, sobbing as she clutched his shirt. He stroked her back murmuring at her, soothing her as she tried to calm down. Kirito couldn't make out what was said, only the end a sentence as they parted, "… longer, just until we get to the next town." "The next town, and the next, and the next, and the next…" she grouched, wiping her cheeks clean. "All the way to the end, yeah?" He said, stepping away and turning back to Kirito. "Yeah," she said taking one last deep breath. "So, Kirito, shall we?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Warning: Mention of canon death.**

* * *

Kirito, Arkus, and Mayzer went down the stairs and took seats near the top of the theatre in the town **[Tolbana]** where the meeting about the floor boss was being held. It had been a month since they were all trapped in the game and no one had found the floor boss. Two thousand plyers had died since then, some of them ex-beta-testers Arkus had known who thought they could go it solo. It made a grim kind of sense to Mayzer. Players had to level slower than they would have to avoid getting themselves killed. This meant not going for monsters of higher or same level as them despite the greater amount of XP offered. It also made sense that not everything was not the same as in the beta. This put the ex-beta-testers on the same playing field as the beginners to some extent. She frowned at the thought of how many beta-testers died because a monster was a higher level than expected, or the field boss was in a different area. Mayzer looked back and observed her party-mates as they found seats for themselves.

While Kirito's gear hasn't changed much except for his sword and some better armor, both Arkus and Mayzer had upgraded their outfits. Arkus now had a metal chest plate and pauldrons, as well as greaves and gauntlets. He also had an upgraded two-handed axe strapped to his back. Mayzer now had a second belt that held her throwing knifes and a pouch for some senbon and an ingredients satchel slung across her chest. She had a leather jerkin on and a long brown coat over it. She had soft leather boots and black fingerless gloves. Her hair was still in its ponytail and she now had a red bandana covering the bottom half of her mouth. Since she couldn't control her thought-to-mouth filter lately she had taken to hiding her face more in embarrassment.

As they seated themselves, the man standing in the stage area called for everyone's attention. Mayzer couldn't focus well on his speech because she was so caught on his hair color. _Did he really waste money on in-game hair dye? Or did he dye it before coming into the game, and the face scanner read it as his real hair color? There is no way that is natural. Maybe I can ask him where he got it. I wonder if they have a good shade of purple, or maybe green. I could probably go red if I wanted. If I get a sample maybe I can reverse-engineer it and make it myself, add a few new colors, maybe sell it. Hmmmm…_

Her focus broke when everyone started to break into teams of six. She wasn't worried about numbers, even though they only had three members, they were still a good team, each of them able to cover any weaknesses of the other members. She saw Kirito looking at something and looked over to see a lone player in a maroon cloak sitting at the other end of the stone bench. She grinned and nudged at Kirito, gesturing for him to go over and talk to the player, "Go on, we could always use another body. Plus, with that rapier she's got, she should have enough speed to keep up with you." He nodded and scooted over to her, talking to her and offering to take her into their party. The girl pressed the accept button and Mayzer looked at the bars in the top left corner to read the girl's username, **[Asuna]**.

Her thoughts wandered back to what ingredients she would need for different hair colors and she almost missed the orange-haired man leaping straight over her head and face the audience. She felt Arkus wrap his hand around her wrist as red seeped into her vision listening to the utter _bullshit_ this punk was spouting. She couldn't count how many times Arkus and Kirito almost died keeping her and whoever crossed their path alive. Even though he put on the face of one who didn't care about anyone else, and if it wasn't happening right in front of him it was mostly true, she knew Kirito wasn't the type to just let others die without helping. It just made her angrier, he was just a kid, he shouldn't have to be responsible for people older than him and who should have enough _goddamn_ commonsense not to get in such stupid situations, herself included. It was the reason why she had thrown herself into making more efficient healing and regeneration crystals, as well as trying to perfect her aim. While Arkus had increased his strength and was starting to be a real tank, she had learned several skills focused on throwing off monsters' aim and balance, focusing on their wrists and other joints, as well as shifting their agro when her party-members were getting battered. She wasn't too good at it yet, but it had saved both of her teammates from some serious injuries. Abandoned them her ass. Maybe some of them had, but Mayzer couldn't blame them. She would be hesitant to put her neck on the line for strangers too, especially if she were in the same boat. And especially if it was with assholes like Kibaou going around running their mouths.

She was ready to rip away from her brother and smack that punk onto his butt when someone stepped up to him. Mayzer calmed down as the tall man, taller than Arkus, Agil stared Kibaou down and calmly explained how the ex-beta-testers had been helping. It sobered her further thinking about the guide book in Agil's hand. Some of the two thousand players had been those that died to make sure the guide book was accurate as possible so no one else would die for those same mistakes. It made her wonder how accurate the book was about the floor boss, and if the location wasn't the only thing Kayaba had changed. She sheepishly looked up at Arkus, who was giving her an amused but unimpressed look, knowing what she had been close to doing. She looked over at Kirito and gave him a reassuring smile when he looked over at her. He smiled back, recognizing the folds and creases in Mayzer's bandana that signified her smile, it was a little bit shaky, but it was something. He was still a bit nervous after Kibaou's speech, but loosened up as meeting continued. When it ended, Mayzer turned back to the pair, but Asuna was already leaving. She didn't feel bad about it, after all they had just met and her inclusion in the party was probably only going to last through the boss fight.

As they headed back into the town, Arkus and Kirito split from Mayzer, saying they were going to browse the stalls and shops. Mayzer nodded and told them to meet her back in the inn for dinner. After that she headed to the inn and reserved a couple of rooms, one for her and one for the boys. She didn't think it necessary, but it was one of those things Arkus was adamant about, and it was less trouble to just go along with it. Plus it gave her room to lay out her alchemy equipment.

She went into her items menu and selected the herbs and minerals she gathered on the way to town. It was interesting, how the game made its different types of crystals. The process started with a solid mineral base, the types of crystal dependent on mineral used. She had found out which ones were used for those used on the body, like health and antidote crystals, and she thought she was close to figuring out the base for transportation crystals, but that was a ways off yet and she was unable to reverse-engineer them with her current skill. Then you had to infuse the mineral with different herbs and oils to get the desired effects, such as health or regeneration. There was also the process of heating the mixture for the right amount of time, or the whole thing could cool into a dud or explode into molten shards right in your face. They didn't take away health since they were usually made in the safe-zones, but the shards are able to give you scars where they cut due to the different ingredients imbued into them. Her bandana hid several such scars and there was one splitting her left eyebrow, along with some on her hands and forearms.

The scars she had gotten her first few attempts were the things that ultimately turned Kirito away from learning, though he wasn't too set on it in the first place. The first and only time he and Arkus tried to dissuade her from continuing the skill after seeing the scars, it had only taken one look into her eyes and then the matter was dropped and never brought up again. It wasn't too long after that that she started wearing a bandana across her face instead of around her neck.

Not only could you make the standard crystals, but if you got real good you could add extra effects or enhance those already present. Right now she could make healing crystals and some antidotes, but the thing she was proud of was that she had managed to enhance the speed of the healing crystals and figured out how to make a regeneration crystal. You could also experiment and try to make new kinds of crystals, but she was leery of doing that since there was a chance of making a faulty crystal that damaged a player when used. They didn't look different than working crystals, and you had to look at it description to find out which were good or not. It had happened to Arkus when he tried one of the first crystals she had tried to make. It was a good thing they had pre-made healing crystals on hand. It was another couple of weeks and a few used by Kirito before he tried any of her crystals again. By now her skill had improved to the point where they only bought and used store-bought crystals when she ran low on supplies or hadn't figured out that particular recipe.

It was dark outside when she was brought out of her work by a knock at the door. "Come in!" She yelled, turning back to the lump of mineral in the bowl in front of her. She dusted it with some powdered roots, added some chopped up stems, put in some crushed petals and added a couple of drops of several oils and extracts with some eyedroppers. She then put the bowl on a stand over a small Bunsen burner like device. As the mixture started to heat up, it glowed and she quickly removed it from the flame with some tongs. As she set it back down on the desk, the mass separated into several globs and lost their glow. In front of her were several red healing crystals, each a shade darker than the ones available in the shops.

"You know you look like a mad scientist when you're like that, right?" Arkus remarked as he looked over her shoulder, reaching over to take some of the crystals.

"Isn't that what everyone wants be, anyway? Wait your turn, I'm going to hand out the ones I made in the morning." Mayzer said absently, swatting away his hand and putting away the crystals and other items. She usually did this when they were in town, handing them out between the three of them when they left for the fields. "So where is Kirito? I thought we were going to eat together." "He went off to find our new party-member, make sure she eats too." Mayzer nodded and they both went downstairs and ordered some actual food from the inn-keeper. Kirito may want to eat cream covered cardboard rolls with their new teammate, but they had made a good amount of Col from the quests they had been doing, and Mayzer wanted meat, _actual_ meat, for once while they were here, before they faced the giant rat lord. After they cleared their plates and listened to the gossip the inn-keeper had they headed up to bed, Kirito coming in not too long after.

* * *

The next morning they met up with Asuna and Mayzer handed out the healing crystals, about six or eight for each of them. Asuna seemed confused as to why she was being given crystals, while the boys simply gave her an exasperated look. So she had gone a little over board while making the crystals, she was a bit preoccupied at the time. The hair dye refused to leave her thoughts! God, she wanted to color streaks in her again!

"I have a good enough skill in Alchemy to make my own healing crystals, and they're a bit better than the ones in the shops. I usually make sure each of them have enough on them before we leave a safe-zone." Mayzer explained to the girl. She looked even more surprised. "You can make these?" "Yeah," Mayzer said, as they followed the group of other players towards the dungeons, "most people don't get into it, either because it too much like chemistry for them, or the scars you usually get." "Scars?" Mayzer pulled down her bandana, showing little scars about half an inch long peppering her cheeks and one larger one going across her mouth on the right side, drawing notice to a few other scars on her forehead and the one on her eyebrow. Then she pulled off her gloves and showed her the same type of scar littering her fingers and hands, going past her wrists and thinning out as they climbed her arms. "The different ingredients you add to make the crystals can explode and shatter if you heat them too long, and they can react to your skin, causing the wounds to scar. I usually make them in safe-zones when I'm testing new recipes so it doesn't drain my health, but still, it's not a skill that just anyone can learn." Asuna nodded, looking slightly unnerved under her hood. Whether it was by the scars or the uncaring way Mayzer talked about them she didn't know, or care. She didn't really care how they looked, and only wore the bandana and gloves so the boys wouldn't get upset by them. It was for progress, and so the others could have better items, so she felt it was worth it.

As they walked, Kirito and Asuna fell behind as Kirito went over how they were going to deal with the sentinels. Mayzer and Arkus were going to pair up and fight together since they had the best teamwork, which left Kirito with Asuna. That was fine, since Kirito was good enough to work around a new team member and mesh their styles together. Mayzer looked back when she felt Kirito stop and saw him looking exasperated and resigned. From what she heard, Asuna was as much of a noob as she used to be before the boys taught her about online games. She snickered as Kirito started explaining what a switch was and how it benefited teams in a fight. Arkus just shot her a look which practically screamed ' _you were just as bad_ '. This just made her grin at him from under her bandana.

They finally made it to the boss room and Mayzer readied herself, a knife in both hands, standing a few steps behind Arkus, who had unslung his battle-axe and was gripping it in both hand, holding it across his body. Diavel the leader finished a short speech and opened the doors, leading the others as they charged into the room.

It was a long stone corridor, with grey pillars at regular intervals along the walls. At the end of the room, cloaked in shadows, Mayzer could just see an outline of Illfang, and his red eyes which glowed in the darkness. Suddenly the doors closed and the room was lit up, the wall taking on a psychedelic glow, and Illfang jumped out of his throne and across to the middle of the room, his minions materializing next to him. The name hovering over him read **[Illfang the Kobold Lord]** with four health bars hovering next to it. The minions were similarly named **[Ruin Kobold Sentinel]**. Illfang was gigantic, a red rat-like monster with a blue diamond pattern on his bare stomach and minimal armor save for a loin-cloth and a metal helmet, holding a shield and axe with some kind of weapon strapped to the small of its back. The sentinels were also vaguely rat-like, covered with armor and holding rock-crusted maces.

The raid group charged, crashing into the sentinels and splitting into groups. Mayzer fell into the rhythm of battle, aiming for spots on the sentinels that were vulnerable while Arkus held their attention, dealing crushing blows and making openings for deadly blades to sneak in, finding and burying into vital spots, radically dropping the monsters HP and leaving them easy pickings for the brutal and cruel edge of her brother's axe. Nothing else registered to her but aiming and releasing her knifes, catching them when they appeared before her when the opponent they were buried in shattered and taking out new ones when the ones in her hands lost what little durability they had. One sentinel had snuck up on her, but she simply pulled out her dagger and ducked under its swing and into the sentinel's space, getting close enough to be out of the maces' range and sinking the blade directly into the sentinel's throat, dragging it across and opening a gash in the monster's neck before it shattered and she pulled out another throwing knife and shot it straight into another sentinel's elbow, giving Arkus an opening to sink his axe into the rat's skull. And so they continued, in almost perfect sync with each other, mowing through sentinels with a single-minded purpose, ignoring everything else, even their own wounds unless their HP dropped into the yellow.

Only when the last sentinel within their sphere of influence had died did Mayzer come back to herself, looking around to check on Kirito. Usually they were fighting with him so she was already aware of him, but she had lost sight of him after the second sentinel. As Arkus downed a potion to regain health, she spotted him and Asuna fighting a sentinel a bit away from them. They worked well together, she noted, Kirito throwing them off with sheer strength and Asuna coming in to put in quick rapid fire strikes that ate up the monsters' HP. She noticed Kirito staring at something and she turned just in time to see Illfang throw away his axe and buckler and pull out a sword, but not the curved sword Arkus had describe a talwar as. She heard Diavel yell and solo rush the boss, sword skill charging, also hearing Kirito yell out a warning, but too late. The rat jumped up and started to leap from wall to wall, homing in on Diavel. He was unable to react as Illfang launched straight at him, sending him stumbling back with a serious gash across his chest and then sinking his sword straight into the knight's gut, throwing the player back across the room. It then jumped into the middle of the main group, snarling and slashing at them. Mayzer hesitated before going to help the main group with the boss, letting Kirito take care of Diavel. She sank blade after blade into Illfang, into his elbows, into his neck, even into the back of its knees to slow it down and give the others the chance to land blows on it, steadily picking away at that last piece of health.

She looked over and saw Diavel start to glow. _No, not now. Not again_ , she silently begged in her mind, but it was no good. The knight shattered, shocking all the players before they were forced to refocus on Illfang, who was still raging, wildly slashing its nodachi at the group surrounding it. Mayzer gritted her teeth, and took out her dagger. It wouldn't do her any good, but she had sank her last knife into the soft part of the rat's elbow, yanking the slash that would have taken a player's head off course. She watched as Kirito and Asuna charged at the boss, and felt her breath catch as its sword caught her cloak, almost catching her neck instead. She was unable to fully appreciate the awe-struck look on Kirito's face as he was shown the pretty face so-far hidden by the cloak, made even better with the sparkly remains of her cloak dancing around her, as he was suddenly blocking Illfang's strikes. She gasped and dashed over to him as the boss's sword made contact and threw him into the air and skidding into Asuna, his HP rapidly dropping. As the nodachi was brought down on them again, Agil came in and knocked Illfang off course, the rest of the players joining in and keeping the boss away and giving Kirito a chance to recover. Mayzer dropped to her knees and shoved a crystal into his mouth, making sure his HP was rising before turning and keeping an eye on her brother, who was in front next to Agil, the two of them blocking and throwing back Illfang's attacks, giving the others openings to attack.

Kirito's HP was almost back to full when Illfang threw all the players away from him, going on the offensive. Kirito jumped up and blitzed Illfang with a well-timed attack, sending him into the ground. Kirito and Asuna then charged at the boss, preforming a flawless switch routine and ending it with Kirito scoring two deep gashes into Illfang, nearly bisecting the monster.

The rat monster seemed to swell a bit before glowing brightly and shattering into a million tiny shards. Never has Mayzer been so glad to hear the sound of breaking glass. Everything was still for a moment before everyone burst into cheers, Mayzer and Arkus included. She didn't even care that every single one of her knifes had shattered with the boss and she was stuck with one lousy dagger before she could get to the nearest weapons shop. She could get them when they stepped onto the second floor! Everyone was still celebrating and congratulating Kirito when Kibaou started in on him, accusing him of letting Diavel die. Then came the accusations of being a beta-tester, like that was a bad thing, and the next thing she knew, Mayzer was surrounded by suspicious players, each eyeing their neighbors, as if they could spot a beta-tester just by squinting.

She was about to speak up when a laugh was heard. She wheeled around to stare at Kirito, the source of the laugh. She got an inkling of what he was about to pull off, and made to move forward to stop him when he said the next words, sealing his fate. "So you want to call me an ex-beta-tester. It's not cool to put me in the same class as those newbs." She stood frozen as he went on, ragging on the other testers, lying about how he got _so much farther than anyone else_ , and taking on that despicable name, beater, putting on a new long coat that she realized was that last attack bonus. She couldn't move because she knew why he was doing it. He was taking the heat off the other testers, like her brother, and giving the other players a bigger target to focus on, to ostracize. She felt something tight in her chest as he walked away and she got a new window, one that stated **[Kirito has left the party.]** She could only watch as he climbed the stairs alone, as he pushed open the doors alone, as he left the first floor, and Mayzer's and Arkus' lives for the foreseeable future, alone.

 _No._

Mayzer latched onto Arkus' wrist and yanked him along as she sprinted past the other players, past Kibaou and Agil who had called out, past Asuna at the base of the stairs and almost crashing into Kirito as they stepped through the door into the second floor. She let go of her brother and tackled Kirito.

"Mayzer, what are you doin-"

"No. You don't get to just decide when to leave us. There are processes for these types of things," she started to ramble, distracting Kirito as she sent a party request and manipulating his finger to accept. "You have to make sure this is really what you want and not some twisted teenage angst/rebellion thing you got going on. Then you go to Arkus so he can knock your sense back, because obviously you wouldn't be thinking. Then if that didn't work he would drag you over to me where I would start to talk and ramble and make you too confused to even think about leaving…" Arkus dragged her off Kirito, the fact he had waited until Kirito's name came back up onto the party list was neither here nor there. "I think he's got the message, Mayzer" Kirito started and looked at the two other names under his. "You guys shouldn't-" "Shouldn't what, be seen with you? You're our friend Kirito, we aren't simply going to let you take all the heat." "But-" Josh interrupted, noticing his sister starting to puff up in irritation, "Just nod and say yes, Kirito. You don't want to set her off again do you?" Kirito stared at them stubbornly, Mayzer staring defiantly right back. He sighed and hung his head, "Fine, help me up would you?" Mayzer grinned triumphantly and grabbed on to the offered limb pulling him up. "Alright! Now where's the weapon shop around here? Mayzer needs her knifes."

Kirito just huffed a laugh and followed as his friends started to terrorize the nearby NPCs in search of good steel. He supposed sticking around wouldn't be too bad.


	3. Chapter 3

**Warning: Mention of canon death and suicide.**

* * *

Mayzer dashed into another inn, taking a quick look around, startling other players when she exclaimed, "Not here!" And ran back out. She took, Arkus trying in vain to catch his sister as she made a bee-line for the next inn she found. "Why are there so many inns here? The town can't possibly be large enough to support such commerce!" She ducked into the current inn, slightly out of breath, when she let out a pleased shriek and body tackled her wayward party-member. "Gah!" "Kirito!" "Are you okay?!" He was suddenly dragged back upright and came face to face with Mayzer. "Where were you? You just wander off and I had to go looking all over for you when you answer my message with just an 'I'll be at the inn'. Which inn? There's at least seven in this town! You know my tracking skill isn't as good as yours and Arkus has none to begin with, so I had to check every, single, one." Kirito looked at Mayzer, noticing she was out of breath and disheveled. He chuckled sheepishly, "… Sorry? I didn't notice I had wandered away until I realized I couldn't see you guys anywhere, and then I had to step in to help these guys."

Mayzer turned her head and realized Kirito had not in fact been alone. She felt her cheeks heat up, thankfully hidden by her bandana, and she dropped Kirito, coughing embarrassedly. "Um, hi?" She awkwardly raised and waved her hand. She leaned over to Kirito, "Who are these people?" she asked in what was supposed to be a quiet whisper. "If you ever stopped to breathe once in a while you would probably have found out by now." A voice growled out, as an armored fist suddenly crashed down on Mayzer's head. She yelped and hit the floor as Arkus caught the rest of his breath from the crazed race his sister had dragged him on, reflexively dodging the needles thrown by the prone figure on the floor. Kirito sighed and turned to the guild he had been talking to, "These are the other party-members I fight with. Guys, these are the Moonlit Black Cats. The leader Keita," he pointed to a red clad teen," Sasamaru and Sachi the damage dealers" the green and blue figures raised their hands," and Ducker and Tetsuo, the thief and forward respectively." The purple clad guy nodded while the yellow cloaked figured waved at them.

Keita seemed to deflate a bit, "Oh, you're already in a team? It just seemed you were on your own, I was going to offer…" Mayzer smiled, "That's fine, and Kirito usually looks like he's in his own world most of the time. You guys are your own guild? What's your levels?" "We're all around level twenty. What about you guys?" "Kirito and I are at level forty, but Mayzer is catching up at level thirty-five." Arkus explained leaning over Kirito and snatching his drink. "We all came down here to do some leveling and to get away from the front lines for a bit." The others are looking at them gob-smacked and Mayzer couldn't help but laugh, "No, no! Don't be like that. We wanted to meet some new people anyway. So, do you guys want to go out and level with us tomorrow? I think I remember this great spot to farm **[Killer Mantis]** on floor twenty." They all looked a bit uncomfortable, and Keita said, "Look, that's a nice offer but you guys don't have to-" "I insist! After all you were the guys to lead our wayward Kirito home and I couldn't think of a better way to repay you for it." "But, he was the one tha-" "No buts! So we'll meet you on floor twenty tomorrow for some leveling. You guys will catch up to us in no time. Good night!" Mayzer the proceeded to drag and push the two other members out of the inn and down the street to another one she had checked out earlier.

"Mayzer, why did you do that? They didn't seem to want to train with us." Kirito said, slightly bitter.

"They seem like a good group and I'm not going to let their own insecurities get in the way of their progress. They obviously have guessed we're from the assault team, so they should be happy to pick our brains for tips and tricks to level further. They'll get over themselves soon, don't worry." And with that she turned away from them and started to discuss room arrangements with the inn-keep. Kirito turned to Arkus, "Are you really okay with this?" "We came down here to relax anyway, right? Some lower level farming isn't too bad and what we probably would've ended up doing anyway. Plus, wouldn't you like to make sure they don't get into another tight spot again?" Kirito squirmed, "Yeah, I guess. I'm not the one who's going to have to pull Mayzer off them when she get to into explaining anything." Arkus cringed, remembering how focused his sister was when she wanted to be. Mayzer turned back with a couple of keys. "Alright, here you go. See you guys in the morning. Good night!"

As she headed up the stairs, the boys shared one last look before shuddering and following her up, each feeling a sense of foreboding about the next day.

* * *

Mayzer smiled as she spotted the group waiting by the teleport area in floor twenty and snuck up on them, not being noticed until she spoke up, "Great! You're all here! Now I don't have to go hunting you all down." She said with a chipper smile, internally cackling at the jumps of surprise from the group. The others of her party came up behind her and she took charge, leading the gaggle-or is it herd? What do you call a group of teenagers? Anyway, she lead them into the forests, chattering about random things and randomly explaining how they were going to go about getting there levels up in such a disjointed manner that Arkus inserted himself into the conversation to clear up what she had said for the confused teens.

"Don't pay too much attention to her rambling, she gets like that when she gets new toy- I mean, _friends_. What we're basically going to be doing is Mayzer will attract the mobs and Kirito and I will lower their HP. Then, while the mobs are focused on us, you guys are going to take turns finishing them off. This way you get most of the XP for being the ones to get the last attack in, while still taking only a small amount of risk." The others nodded hesitantly, still not sure why such high-level players were bothering with a small guild like them. "We were getting bored." Mayzer said, looking back at them over her shoulder. The teens jumped, how did she-? "It's what I would be asking if I was in your situation. But yeah, we, or at least _I_ , got bored just leveling, but we didn't want to go back to the stress of the front lines, so I thought helping some players would be a good compromise." The others still looked a bit unnerved, but some of the tension left as they got an acceptable answer. Mayzer grinned and turned back around. She pointed ahead and said, "There they are! Let's do this!" And with no more warning, she took out a knife and sank it straight into the body of one of the huge mantises trying to sneak up on the group.

The rest of the morning was spent fighting off the hordes of mantises that inexplicably homed in on the group of players. By the time lunch rolled around, the three high-level players looked pleasantly worked over while the guild-members looked about ready to collapse, but still happy as each of them had jumped at least one or two levels just in those three or four hours. As they headed to one of the field safe-zones for lunch Mayzer sheepishly admitted to equipping a mob attractant bracelet since she didn't want to go hunting the monsters down. The group just stared at her before Arkus cuffed her over the head and told to never use that again, and why did she have that in the first place? "Well it happened to be the first jewel I made, so I thought it would be the perfect situation to test it out. How was I supposed to know _that_ many mobs would come down on us?" Arkus sighed, "Why did I let you buy that jewelers' kit? Your already enough of a mad scientist."

Making jewels and clothes that hold long-term passive effects, like speed or strength boosts or drain and poison effects, was surprisingly similar to crystal-making. With jewels you only had to replace minerals with semi-precious or precious stones, and with clothes you simply soaked the base cloth into a solution of herbs and other ingredients. She would call them potions but the lack of magic and realistic chemical reactions confirmed to her that this was firmly based in chemistry. Mayzer had journals full different properties of ingredients and how they reacted to each other to gain different effects already, and added to them each time they stopped for the night in town. Focusing on her research was the reason she wasn't as high a level as Arkus or Kirito. She was currently splitting her focus between the front lines, and her research into the different effects she could make with different clothes, stones, and minerals.

Arkus was the one to suggest taking a few weeks off the front lines after seeing how much time she was sinking into her skills. He knew Mayzer was selling off any extra clothes and jewels she makes in item shops at a lowered price, saving up to buy the three of them a house on her own so they could focus on their weapons. If she wasn't so stuck on being on the front lines and by his side she would have owned one of the most successful shop in Aincrad. He constantly worried for her, her neurotic tendencies and social blunders becoming more and more pronounced as the months went by and they were still in the bottom floors of the game. He was mulling over how just a couple of hours away from it all and some interactions from the baby guild had his sister acting more like herself as they munched away at the food they brought and shoved a packet of fries at Mayzer as she went over the items she gathered while they were playing 'whack-the-bug'. The girls were chatting about crystal making, and Sachi seemed much more interested in that than fighting mobs with her guild-mates. He would have to talk to the leader to see if would be willing to let her switch to a different job than he planned.

The days went on like this, them doing intensive training in the morning and then relaxing in the afternoon. Sachi started taking lessons from Mayzer, reading her notes and increasing her skill in alchemy. Keita agreed in letting her learn and focus on that, as long as she still joined them in training and continued to level up. She seemed much happier with something less life-threatening to occupy her mind. She was now able to make enhanced healing crystals and regeneration crystals, and was starting in on the recipe for antidote crystals.

Mayzer and Arkus have also improved their skills. Arkus now sported a full set of armor, with two jewels inlaid in the shoulders, one a +4 strength the other a +3 defense. His two-handed axe was now of better quality and had another jewel embedded where the blade met the shaft that gave a +3 critical hit bonus to his attacks. He was now also a pretty good cook, and now made most of the food the party ate. He also gained the stealth skill and was almost silent even when in his armor. Damn sneaky bastard he is. Mayzer's equipment also improved. Her long coat now had a +3 concealment and her boots +3 speed. She also now had a steel pauldrons on her left shoulder and steel plated fingerless gloves. Her leather jerkin was now replaced with a purple and red striped shirt with a +4 defense. Her red bandana also was treated to reduce the effects of toxic gas, and she had dyed her bangs a cherry red. She had also gained a new skill.

It was an accident really.

She was out gathering ingredients on floor seventeen, getting some alone time after the boss fight on floor twenty-five. It was a nasty piece of work, spewing poison and toxic gases _everywhere_. The Aincrad Liberation Army, or just the Army, had been stupid and tried to take on the boss themselves before anyone else. Trying to gain some popularity most likely. It had radically backfired, with twenty players dying in that fight before the rest of the assault team showed up. She and Arkus had been messaged to come along to help in the middle of a training session. They had cut it short and sent the toddler guild back to a lower floor with Kirito while they had rushed to get to the boss room. Mayzer had used all her antidote crystals in the first five minutes, and she had come prepared. The pair of them had gained a bit of a name for themselves as being a good team, one of the only ones to not have been recruited by a guild. Not that some of them haven't tried.

But, back on track she was getting her head on back straight in the woods, no weapons drawn because there wasn't much on this floor that could fight her and win. As she was walking she noticed something following her. She looked back and saw a blur as whatever it was darted behind a tree. She squinted at it before continuing on. This happened several times before she sighed and ambushed the thing, sneaking up behind it and lifting it up into the air. The tiny mob snarled and waved its claws at her ineffectually. She looked at it bemusedly, honestly it looked like a carnivorous teddy bear. Other than the three inch long claws and the enlarged fangs, it was adorable. It even had a red faux hawk of red fur on the top of its head. They stared at each other and Mayzer tucked it under her arm and went to her menu. She scrolled through her items and select a piece of meat. She crouched down and set the creature down on the ground and shoved the meat into its mouth before it could bolt. It looked kind of hungry and she was always a sucker for fuzziness. The teddy chewed on the food, eyeing her as if to make sure it wasn't a trick. Suddenly it launched itself and latched onto her waist, nuzzling its muzzle into her stomach. She hesitantly patted its head as she read the screen that popped up in front of her. **[New Skill Unlocked: Beast Tamer]**. Apparently only players without weapons are able to attract mobs that are able to be tamed, and only if the player hadn't killed one of its kind before. She took a look at the name floating above the little monster. **[Bearwol]** , well, she couldn't decide if that makes it more adorable or not.

Arkus just sighed when he saw his sister walk into the inn with a living plushie clinging to her chest like a demented koala. He didn't mind too much since it would serve as a nice therapy animal for Mayzer to fuss over. When he asked what she was going to call it, she just looked at him, at the teddy, and back at him, and in the most serious voice said, "His name is Fitzgerald. Not Fitz, not Gerry, Fitzgerald." And everybody learned that when Kirito was roasted by a surprise fire-breath when he called it "Fitz". Mayzer was now teaching Fitzgerald how to sustain a lance of fire to help with her alchemy and jewel-making.

The kiddy guild was making good progress as well. All of them were around level twenty-five or six, with Sachi being the lowest at twenty-four. Mayzer couldn't wait for them to catch up and join them at the front lines and shove the assault team's elitist attitude right into their pompous faces. Their stupid, handsome, gray-haired… "You're squishing your sandwich, you're thinking of Heathcliff again aren't you." "Do not speak its name!"

The thing of her nightmares, the Knights of the Blood Oath's, or KBO's, leader Heathcliff. He had approached the duo after the floor twenty-five boss raid and "offered" for them to join his guild, which has grown to surpass the Army as the strongest guild in Aincrad. This was after they had already turned down their friend Asuna when she had approached them on his behalf. The fact he only came to see them _after_ they had said no to Asuna when she had approached them, as if he would convince them when their friend had failed, had already set off Mayzer's asshole meter. The way he stared at them, like they were _nothing_ , like they were simply NPCs going off script by saying no, had unnerved her to the point that she just walked out of the boss room in the middle of his sentence. Even though Arkus admitted to being slightly creeped out, none of the other players they met had felt the same level of unrest she felt in Heathcliff's presence. This only made her paranoia worst, and she avoided any mention of him and sent Arkus and Kirito to raid meetings if she got wind he would be at one.

Speaking of which, they had just gotten a message from Asuna, asking for them to join the assault team for the boss raid on floor twenty-seven. She replied they would be there, going over the details of the boss and sorting her crystals and gesturing to Arkus and Kirito. "Arkus and I are joining in on the boss raid, so you're in charge of the kiddies while we're gone, got it?" Kirito nodded and turned back to the guild lounging on the grassy step-like hill. Mayzer and Arkus went to the teleport station and went to floor twenty-seven, meeting up with Asuna and joining the assault team as they headed out, switching out weapons and clothes as they went. Mayzer gave some crystals to both Arkus and Asuna, and added a bracelet with +3 speed to Asuna as well. She nodded and slipped it on her wrist.

The battle fierce, reminding Mayzer of that first boss raid, except this boss had many, many, _many_ , more minions to deal with. It took a good five minutes for the raid group to cut through the horde and make contact with the boss. Asuna separated from the pair to go for the boss with the rest of her guild. Mayzer and Arkus fell into their routine, blocking out all other stimuli, neither registering the message from Kirito until after the floor was cleared, and by then the message was joined by a system announcement, **[Kirito has left the party.]** When she checked her friends list, Mayzer couldn't find Kirito on it. She finally read the message and immediately started sprinting back towards town to the teleport station, Arkus right behind her. They shot out of the teleport and straight towards the memorial on the first floor, stopping in front of it and desperately scanning the names carved onto its surface.

-Keita.-

-Ducker.-

-Tetsuo.-

-Sasamaru.-

-Sachi.-

 **Kirito.**

She gasped, tears streaming down her face and would have collapsed if it wasn't for her brother holding her up. Fitzgerald, who had stayed clinging to her back throughout the boss fight, whined, sensing his mistress's distress, and nuzzled into her neck. She buried her face into Arkus's chest, sobbing in both grief and relief. Her little kiddy guild was _dead_ , and she felt her heart tearing in half, but her friend was still _alive_ , and that brought new pain because she couldn't _find_ _him_ , he was hiding from them, why would he _do_ that?

She faintly registered her brother picking her up and moving to the teleport station, didn't even know which floor they were now on or where they were headed before he set her down on a bed and she took in the swathes of cloth and smell of fumes and realized they were in the house she had recently bought for all of them. She broke out into new sobs as she thought of the empty room in the house, the room that would stay empty until they managed to track down their wayward friend. And find him they shall.

* * *

Mayzer strode into the inn, her serious expression at odds with Fitzgerald clinging to her back, its head poking over her shoulder. It was a couple of days after Christmas and all the floors were still covered in snow, sending many inside to avoid the cold. She went to the back corner where Klein was waiting, a tankard of mead in front of him. She sat across from him and ordered a glass of juice from the barmaid when she came around.

"Well? Did you find him? Did he look okay?" she asked anxiously.

Klein sighed, "Yeah, I found him alright. Had to stalk him all the way to the middle of the forest maze, but we found him. He was after the revival item from the Christmas event." "Did he get it?" "Yeah, we had to fight off the Holy Dragon Alliance to give him the chance. And here it is, just handed it over like it was nothing." She looked at the jewel like object, reading the description, her eyes widening when she gets to the 'within ten seconds' condition. Her eyes softened and Klein could barely make out the "Oh, Kirito…" she murmured to herself. She gave it back to him and got up and started to walk away. "You ever going to tell me what happened between you guys?" She stopped and looked back at him, "As soon as I find out myself." And with that she left inn and walked back to the teleport station, transporting to floor fifteen where their house was and unlocking the door and stepped inside. Arkus was on a solo quest gain some more Col, leaving her alone with Fitzgerald as her only company. It had been happening more and more as the months went on and their schedules began to diverge more and more as he focused on the front lines and she hunted down any and all rumors about a lone swordsman dressed in black.

As she came in she flipped on the lights, and paused, startled as Fitzgerald launched himself over her shoulder and into the other room, hearing something being knocked over and a cry of surprise. She slowly approached the doorway, taking out a knife ready to take out anybody trying to break in to their home. As she turned the corner she dropped the knife in shock and bolted over to the overturned figure being cuddle attacked by Fitzgerald. She latched onto his black coat and buried her face into his chest, tears soaking his shirt. She felt his arms hesitantly wind around her and his hands awkwardly pat her back. She sniffled, her breath catching in her throat as she tried to gather her thoughts. "Don't y-you dare do a-anything like that ever again, you hear me? I lost so many people in one day and then you just _vanish_ and I couldn't find you and I don't want to lose you to, alright?" He was silent for a moment, before he whispered, "Even though it was my fault they died? I was the one supposed to watch over them, but they wouldn't listen to me. They thought they could go to a higher dungeon while Keita was on floor one buying a house for the guild…"

And so they stayed there, on the floor, as Kirito recounted how they walked into a trapped room, how they couldn't get out with their crystals, how Ducker was stabbed in the back, how Tetsuo and Sasamaru were clubbed to death, and how he desperately tried to get to Sachi but was too late. How he had spent the last few months furiously leveling up, trying to avoid the guilt eating at him, and the look on Keita's face as he came back with a set of keys and the way he accused them of being the cause, how he should have known better than to accept their help. How he had tried to stop him but he was just too far away to make it in time. He admitted to knowingly keeping away from Arkus and Mayzer because he didn't want to face the accusation he thought they would throw at him well. Mayzer just clutched him closer and said they would never blame him for that, he was a child for god's sake, and he shouldn't be responsible for the lives of others in the first place.

By the time Arkus came back home later that night he found both curled up on the couch with Fitzgerald in between, and after getting over the shock he sighed and threw a blanket over the three of them and went to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Kirito sighed, relieved to have some time alone. Ever since he went back Mayzer had been clingy and scolding in turns. He was glad to have his friends back but he thought it would be better to let her calm down for a few days while they were completing this job. It was a way for them to avoid the KBO leader for a while since the duo said he had been present at some of the meetings. He couldn't understand why Mayzer was so hung up on him. Yeah, Kirito agreed that he was kind of weird, but other than that he couldn't detect any malice. Not that he mentioned that, the last time Arkus disagreed with her about the knight he got riddled with needles that got stuck in his armor. Every once in a while Kirito would still pull out a stray bit of metal. He didn't have any metal armor so he would just keep his opinions to himself.

Right now each of them were just wandering the Forest of Wandering on floor thirty-five, where they heard the red guild they were after, Titan's Hand, was looking for a new target. Their contractor, the former leader of a guild called the Silver Flags that was recently wiped out had come to the front lines to beg for any of the players there to go after the red guild that had killed his friends. He had used all of the last of his money to pay for a transport crystal keyed into the coordinates of the prison used to keep red player away from everyone else. Kirito had a personal stake in this, seeing another guild killed was a painful reminder for him, and his party was happy to follow and help him out. It was much easier searching the forest for the red guild with three people instead of just him. That plan was just a bit stupid, as Arkus had pointed out, Mayzer nodding along in the background.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he almost missed the cry of a player in danger. He sped up and was just in time to see a group of **[Drunk Apes]** surround a small player, one having just whacked a small mob into pieces. The girl seemed overcome by grief and Kirito finally stepped in, easily dealing with the three monsters. He walked up to the girl asking if she was alright. "I'm fine, but Pina…" He looked at the glowing feather left from the slain mob. "Pina?" "She was my best friend." The girl sniffled, tears continuing to leak out. A flash of recognition flashed in his eyes, "You're a beast tamer, aren't you?" She nodded, seeming downtrodden. He smiled, not only could he help this girl, but the item needed to bring Pina back was super rare to get, with very exacting conditions for it to spawn in only one place. Irresistible bait. "Hey, what does that item say?" The girl checked, reciting the name, **[Pina's Heart]**. "There' a way for you to bring Pina back, you know?" She looked up, startled. "R-really?" He felt slightly bad, taking advantage of this girl's tragedy before he reminded himself he was helping her this way. "Yeah, there's this item called a Pneuma flower on floor forty-seven that can revive a dead familiar." "Floor forty-seven?" Her hope looked like it had started to die. "Well, maybe someday…" "The thing is, the item only works if you use it within three days." At that he could see all hope die from her eyes. Not wanting to see more tears he hurried on saying, "I would offer to go get it for you myself, but the flower only blooms if the dead familiar's master is present. So, I guess I would just have to escort you through the fields to get it." He rubbed the back o his head, embarrassed as she looked at him adoringly. "You, you would do that?" "Well, yeah. Besides, my friends and I have some business to settle on that floor anyway. Plus, my friend has a familiar of her own, so she wouldn't mind helping yours out. But, if you're coming to floor forty-seven, you'll need better gear. Take this." The girl gaped at the high-quality equipment she got sent. All of it was enhanced in some way, and she didn't even know you could buy things like these, they must have been custom made! He just brushed it off as some old stuff his friend had tinkered with and he never got around to selling, and refused any attempt of hers to pay for the kingly gift he had given her.

He led her back to town and was headed to the inn to introduce Silica to the others when they got stopped by a couple of guys who apparently were part of the party she left in the forest. After acting as a meat shield to deter the fan-boys, they continued to walk along when they were stopped again, but this time by someone much more interesting. "Rosalia." Silica said, staring at the woman who had drove her out of the party. Kirito just stayed quiet as they talked, not missing the gleam of greed in Rosalia's eyes at the mention of the Pneuma Flower they were going to go after. She was very attractive, he had to admit, but he could see why Silica got more attention. The air of danger and seduction clinging to Rosalia like a perfume was stunning, but it would also serve to scare away most male players. He only broke in when she started taunting Silica, "I'm sure it's not that hard. She'll do fine, now if you'll excuse us we have some friends to meet." And with that Kirito steered Silica around the red haired woman and back to the inn, not stopping until they were seated at the table with Arkus and Mayzer.

"So, what did you find?" Mayzer starts, lazily eyeing Silica while feeding bits of charred meat to Fitzgerald.

The little bearwol had most of her attention and Silica's as well. Silica hesitantly asked if she could pet him, and when Mayzer motioned her to continue, she stroked the little monster on the head. Fitzgerald abandoned the meat and toddled over to her, cuddling into Silica's chest. She got a bit teary at the gesture of affection, but continued to pet it, tuning out the conversation around her.

"Not much, but I picked up Silica here when I heard she needed help getting an item on the forty-seventh floor. I figured it wouldn't be too much trouble since we were headed there anyway." Kirito said casually, picking out a drink from the menu as he talked. "Oh, would this have to do with a certain rare flower?" Mayzer asked, grin starting to curl around her lips. Kirito nodded and tilted his head at the younger girl, "She lost her familiar when she split from her party and was left alone in the Forest of Wandering. The other girl in the group, Rosalia, is a real piece of work." Both Mayzer's and Arkus's eyes sharpened at the name and both nodded, getting the message. The probable leader had been identified, now they just had to lure the rest in.

"Well," Mayzer yawned, stretching her hands above her head, "it's about time to get to bed. You want to take a room for yourself here Silica? Or share with me?" "Um! If it's okay with you, sure." Mayzer led her up the stairs to the room they would be sharing and let her in, giving her the key to the room. "In case you need to go out for whatever reason, I don't usually leave during the night so I don't need it." She nodded and sat on the bed, watching with interest as the girl sat in the middle of the floor and pulled out all sorts of scientific looking items as well as bundles and jars of different materials. "Sorry if things get a bit smelly, I just have to refill our crystal supplies. We went through quite a few of them before coming down here." Silica nodded again, curious as to what Mayzer was doing. She took the other girls cue and switched into a more comfortable outfit, choosing a short nightshirt instead of completely stripping to her underwear she would have done if she were alone. Mayzer had simply changed into a large soft button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up she had stolen from her brother, thanking herself for working on her theft skill, even though she didn't use it often.

Fitzgerald crawled off her lap where he had been napping and into Mayer's lap, waiting her for the signal to heat the mixtures his mistress was making. She tapped him on the head and he dutifully spat out a thin rod of flame, warming up the bowl she held in front of him on a pair of tongs. At the next tap he closed his mouth, shutting off the flame and watching as the glowing glob separated into four red healing crystals, happy that he had gotten it right again. He hated when he made the crystals explode, as his mistress always shielded him and got more scars as a result. He was the one who was supposed to protect her, not the other way around!

Silica watched fascinated as the pair made a myriad of crystals and other items. She saw healing and antidote crystals, transport crystals, different colored jewels that were then cut and set in different bands and rings or left as is to sell to item shops or be set in armor or weapons. About the time she had finished another jewel they heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" Kirito and Arkus walked in, Arkus sighing heavily and muttering, "I should have known you would have taken my shirt." Mayzer put away all her items and they all crowded around the round table in the middle of the room.

Kirito pulled out a mirage sphere and set it on the desk, opening it to show the map of the forty-seventh floor. "Wow, it's so pretty." Silica exclaimed, as she watched the pretty yellow particles of light dance around. "Yeah. So we should start out from this town and head down this path-" he stopped mid-sentence and Mayzer suddenly shot towards the door, slamming it open and chasing after the shadow that had retreated as soon as she had gotten up. Her arm shot out as she stopped in the middle of the hallway, and she walked back into the room and dropped back into the chair.

Arkus and Kirito gave her a look, "What, I'm not allowed to deter eavesdroppers?" Mayzer asked, arms crossed over her chest. Silica looked between them, confused, "Eavesdropper? But you can't hear anything in an inn room unless you knock. And what do you mean deter? She didn't do anything." "You can listen without knocking if your listening skill is high enough, and you didn't notice the needles in her hand? What did you lace it with, Paralysis?" Kirito explained to Silica, gesturing to Mayzer who held up the needles she had between each of her fingers. "Nah, that would be boring. I laced those with a drain poison, so his health is going to continue to go down. I had made it antidote resistant with a HP cap. So he isn't going to die, but he'll definitely worry about it." That, and they had to be sure that the red guild knew where they were going and be there to ambush them. They would probably have the whole guild there to ensure they had the number advantage, these guilds were cowards like that.

They finished planning out the next day and the boys left, wishing them good night. Silica laid on the bed, staring at the wall in the dark, and looked over the edge at Mayzer, who had made up a pseudo-bed on the floor and was lying on her stomach, hands folded underneath her and her face to the side. "Um, Mayzer? Are you awake?" "I am now. What is it?" Silica heard her mutter, her head not turning to face her. "Oh! Um, would you mind, I mean, if you wanted-" "Ask before I fall asleep again." "Um, would you mind, sleeping up here, with me?" Silica whispered her cheeks gaining a faint red color. She jerked back as Mayzer's head appeared over the edge, her eyes narrowed with sleep and hair loose and ruffled as she looked at her. There was a beat of silence before she disappeared back down to the floor before crawling into the bed next to her, a blanket and Fitzgerald in her arms. She settled down next to Silica and cuddled down into the mattress, in the exact same position and Fitzgerald next to her side. Silica smiled and laid back down, curling up on her side and drifting to sleep.

* * *

Mayzer woke up uncomfortably warm. She tried to shift to her side but was unable to due to the hot bands of soft flesh encompassing her chest, pinning her arms in place. She stayed still for a moment, gathering her thoughts and figuring out where she was, before heaving up and around, dumping Silica on the ground as she broke her hold. Silica yelped as she landed hard rubbing her butt where it had hit the wooden floors. Mayzer simply sat up and ran a hand through her hair and yawned. She looked down and saw Silica giving her an incredulous look. She raised one eyebrow and said, "I have personal space and like to move in my sleep, so I don't appreciate people sleeping right next to me." "What about Fitzgerald?" Mayzer pointed at him, over on a pillow in the corner, "He knows when to move."

Nothing more was said as the two girls got dressed and moved to go down stairs. Mayzer held up her hand and went over to the room the boys slept in. She knocked on the door, and when there was no reply she took a deep breath and at the top of her lungs yelled, "OI! TIME TO GET GOING! LET'S GO!" Silica heard two thumps and a few seconds later the door opened and she had to duck a thrown jug that Mayzer had leaned out of the way of as it sailed past them and crashed into the wall, immediately shattering into glowing polygons. Arkus was glaring at them, clad only in a pair of loose sweatpants. Silica blushed and turned away, barely hearing him growl at Mayzer, "Will you shut up for once? Some of us actually like to sleep for more than five hours at a time." Mayzer sighed, "Are you going to get up or not?" "Fine, just give us a bit." She stepped back as the door closed and a few minutes later both the boys stepped out, ready to go.

They headed down the stairs and had breakfast in the inn, eggs and sausage with hash-browns with chopped up meat in a small bowl for Fitzgerald. After finishing up they left, Arkus and Mayzer splitting off from Silica and Kirito, saying they would meet them on the forty-seventh floor after they finished some errands. As the pair was teleporting away, Mayzer and Arkus turned around and went back into the middle of town, spitting apart and each headed down a different street. While Arkus was to go to the main hideout to make sure there would be no stragglers left behind during the ambush, Mayzer headed back to the inn, selecting her tracking skill, her eyes gaining a green sheen as the skill activated and she found the trail of colored air that marked the powdered crystal she had laced one of her needles last night with. It was the real reason she had attacked eavesdropper. The powder was a new type of crystal she had been experimenting with. It had been intended as something to mask a player from mobs, but she hadn't managed to figure out how to get the right effect. The effect of being able to be tracked after so many hours if you have a high enough skill was a nice side effect. She followed it to a different inn, and then to the transport station, where she teleported to floor forty-seven and picked it back up, leading her to one of the gates that opened into the fields of flowers, all of it in a wash of green except a bright red trail of red. She followed the trail with her eyes, meandering down the same path they had agreed to follow last night, the same one Kirito and Silica had gone down earlier that day. "Anyone left at the base?" "A few, I'd just dragged them down to the prison." Arkus said as he walked up beside her, leaning on the same pillar she was, an arm stretching above her head. "Didn't even give much of a fight. Guess all the 'strong' players are out there to make sure they get the flower." He remarked, tilting his chin to point at the fields, where a lane of trees next to a bridge could be seen. The red trail lead to the shadows of one of trees where she could see the outline of a player highlighted in red, doubtlessly only one of many waiting for their quarry to show up.

She deactivated the skill and looked at her brother, "So, are we getting involved?" "Nah, I think Kirito's got it. On the other hand, we better make sure no one tries to run."

With that, they both set off down the path, keeping silent and unnoticed by the group waiting in the trees, splitting to come from both sides as Kirito and Silica approached from the fields, Silica oblivious of the danger and Kirito unconcerned. He stopped her on the bridge, and gave her a transport crystal, telling her to transport back to town if something goes wrong. _Dramatic little brat_ , she thought, overhearing him, _he knows damn well they can't touch us_. As she was creeping closer to the trees, the woman she guessed to be Rosalia walked out of the shade, and listened to her poor attempt at intimidation. Sure, if they were actually at a lower level, it might have worked, but as it were, Mayzer just wasn't impressed. Kirito explained how a red guild worked to Silica, saying that their green cursor members acted as bait while the others handled all the dirty work. It fitted Rosalia's personality well, Mayzer thought. The woman seemed more like the type to _delegate_ any difficult tasks to subordinates than to fight herself. As it went on she readied some needles, scoffing at Rosalia's attempt to rationalize her behavior. _Dead is dead in this game, and the fact that it is uncertain whether we actually just wake up should just make a person more hesitant to attack another player, not justify it_.

She watched as the rest of the guild appeared and almost snorted in amusement at the reaction to Silica calling out Kirito's name. Luckily Rosalia didn't believe it was the beater who fought on the front lines in a team of three, saying, "Do you see anyone else here? Of course it isn't him. He would never leave the front lines for some nobody like her, especially without the rest of his party! Now kill him, and take everything he owns!" Following her orders on instinct, they charged at Kirito, blades glowing with various sword skills. Silica cried out, but thankfully didn't run into the middle of it. As expected, Kirito's battle regeneration kicked in and all the red player's attacks didn't even cut off a tenth of his HP before it returned to full. They stopped as they entered the stunned part of their attack, the few seconds after an attack where the system froze your body after an attack. Even when they could move again they were rooted to the spot with shock and disbelief as Kirito explained how he was so far ahead of them in comparison of levels, at a whopping level seventy-eight, that his battle regeneration made it so they could continue to attack him the rest of the day, and it wouldn't even matter. _Unfair indeed_ , Mayzer thought as she lined up her shot, _it's a good thing most PvP killers aren't that high a level or there would be a lot more murders_. The red players kept still as Kirito brought out the warp crystal, recognizing the fact that there would be no consequences for anyone that thought to simply kill them. Rosalia on the other hand, turned and ran, confident that she could come to no harm as long as the swordsman wished to stay green. She didn't even get five feet before she dropped to the ground, unable to move as the paralysis effect of the needle buried in her neck kicked in.

Mayzer appeared from where she herself had been hiding and dragged Rosalia's body next to Kirito, handing her over to Arkus who had come up to them as well and sending Kirito off to escort Silica back to the inn, taking the warp crystal for herself and activating it when he was out of range, taking them and the red players to the prison where the guards were waiting for them. They were quickly escorted to holding cells, one of the guards carrying Rosalia's body and dumping it onto a bed in one of the cells, yanking out the needle and returning it to Mayzer. The pair said farewell and left, heading back to the inn to meet up with Kirito. They got there just in time to witness Silica's dragon, Pina, be resurrected. It was a cute thing, light blue with feathered wings and red eyes, about the size of a house-cat. Not as cute as Fitzgerald, but still pretty cute.

They said goodbye and left, Mayzer adding Silica to her friends list before leaving with the promise to meet back up for lunch and some training. Silica seemed excited and was chattering happily to Pina as she walked back to the transport station, more determined than ever to get stronger.


End file.
